bobem12

Hello, me and my brother are looking for an old american v8 to mess around with and work on, maybe try to paint, etc. We found an '80 cutlass with an olds 350, 121k og miles, auto, new dual exhaust. Guy is asking 1800 but we could maybe get her cheaper. Anyway, I'm a dodge truck guy so I don't know a whole lot about gm or even older cars in general. Just looking for advice and maybe anything about this year or these cars to watch out for. Is it a decent project car? It has an olds 350, how is this different from the proverbial "350 chevy"? Guy said he thought it had a 350 tranny too. How much power would we be looking at? Would it be pretty quick? Pardon so many questions I really just don't know much about these cars (well zero i guess, lol) Thanks a ton!

GoldOlds

Things to look out for on an '80 Cutlass, like all late 70s to mid 80s G bodies, is rust on the frame where it arches over the back axle. The rear ends in these cars are the weakest GM ever made; they've got the 7.5" rears - the rear out of a 1980s 442 would be a great swap, since they're direct bolt ins and have the much stronger 8.5" gears. If the Cutlass in question is stock, you're looking at about 170 hp or so. It probably has 2.73 gears or somewhere in that neighbourhood, so to answer your question, no, it would not be very fast (unless it's been modified). A good place to start would be putting #5 heads on it; that'll bring the compression up a bit. The '78 to mid 80s G-bodies are great cars to mess around with. They're light (by GM standards), have full frames, they're relatively easy to work on, not too hard to find parts for, etc. The Chev 350 has a smaller bore (4.00") and bigger stroke (3.48") than the Olds 350 (4.057" x 3.385"). I think the Olds 350 is a somewhat wider engine and it has a distributor that goes through the back of the engine block, NOT the intake manifold like the Chevy. I don't think there's much that will swap between the different GM 350s.
I hope that helps.

- GoldOlds

Jim's rare 80

Hi. Looks like a nice car. If it does in fact have a 350/350 combo, the milage doesn't matter much as far as driveline goes. It wouldn't be orriginal. In 80, only the 442's came with a 350. The car in your pic is a Supreme. The 442's had different grilles. I have a 70 olds 350 W31/th400 combo in my 80. Mild mods are, it's bored 0.30 over, mild cam, double chain, and the rest is stock. I also made a custom dual snorkell breather. Check out my pics in the photo gallery. Trust me, this car is fun to drive. It wants to break loose in second, and even chirps the tires goin into third. I don't know the actuall HP, (never had it checked.) And I'm still running the stock 2.73, 7.5 rearend. Also. the 80 is the rarest of the 78-87 g-body Cutlass's because the front grille/header was for that year only. 78-79 were the same, and 81 and up were mostly interchangable. Finally, the main difference between the Olds 350, and the Chevy is the Olds are a lot better at low end torque. If you can get the engine code from this car, (It's at the front next to where the oil fill tube goes into the block.) I can tell you for sure. I've owned my 80 for more than 10 years, and I can deffinately help out if you choose to buy it. Also, I will soon be helping a friend do a slant 6- 360 swap in an 84 Dodge ram pickup. Maybe we can swap info. In my opinion, buy the car, it will be fun.
Best of luck, and let us know what you decide. Jim.